[gentle music] - Next on "North Carolina Weekend", join us from the Raleigh Market as we explore Vintage Carolina.

We'll check out two historic stores in Saluda, a motorcycle museum, and a historic tuba collection.

Coming up next.

- [Narrator] Funding for "North Carolina Weekend" is provided in part by Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of barrier island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

[upbeat music] [upbeat music continues] [upbeat music continues] - Hi, everyone, welcome to "North Carolina Weekend".

I'm Deborah Holt Noel, and this week, we are exploring Vintage Carolina from the Raleigh Market, a huge emporium full of antiques and all sorts of fun stuff.

It started back in 1971, so they've been going strong for over 50 years, and the Raleigh Market gets rave reviews from CNN, USA Today, and Country Living Magazine.

On an average weekend, there are more than 300 vendors throughout the flea market, and this place is huge, over 11 acres.

We'll explore these acres more throughout the show, but first, let's head to the mountains, where producer Clay Johnson discovered two antique stores that share the heart of one old town.

- [Clay] This is a tale of two old stores that share the heart of one old town.

Thompson's Store and M. A.

Pace General Store sit less than 200 feet apart in Downtown Saluda.

Together, they represent touchstones to the town's past.

- To have these two stores so close together in the same town and be so old, I think it's great because it's what people come here for, is to see the history, and it's what makes us Saluda.

- [Clay] Thompson's was established in 1890 and is the oldest grocery store in North Carolina.

- It started as a fresh market stand just on the side of the road, and then they built these buildings, and they were here for the railroad workers.

So, upstairs used to be housing for the railroad workers overnight, when they would stop in, and then they'd have food down here for them.

- [Clay] The store has evolved over the years to meet modern tastes while preserving pieces of its past.

- A lot of people who come in and say, "I remember going to these kinds of grocery stores with my grandfather," and now they can experience that with their children.

You can come here and get candy cigarettes with your kids and a glass bottle of soda and some peanuts, and you can't really go into an Ingles or a Publix and do that.

It's not the same experience.

- [Clay] Thompson's added Ward's Grill in 1960.

- [Joshua] It's been a staple of Saluda ever since.

- [Clay] It's a diner style menu serving up sandwiches, burgers, milkshakes, and more.

But it's not just the food that draws the diners.

- I have one gentleman who remembers being six years old, sitting on this bar stool, and we've never replaced 'em, so that's the original bar stool, and he sits there and drinks a milkshake just like his dad did, and, you know, it's people's history, and you're losing that in a lot of your big cities.

- [Clay] Darryl Russell eats here almost every day.

- I've made a lot of sandwiches in here.

[laughs] - [Clay] There's even a sandwich on the menu named for him.

- It's a hoagie roll with roast beef, with provolone cheese and cheddar cheese, with mushrooms, with gravy on the side, and you dip your sandwich in the gravy.

- [Clay] Just down the street from Ward's Grill and Thompson's is M. A.

Pace General Store.

It was founded in 1899 and is owned and operated by Saluda's mayor, Tangie Morgan.

- We try to keep it updated without modernizing it too much, since we love the history of our town.

The store's been here since the 1800s, and we don't wanna lose that.

You know, we embrace that, as you can look around the store and see the history of our town.

- [Clay] There's a scale from 1901.

- [Tangie] It actually weighs to an ounce.

- [Clay] A cash register from 1914.

- But this thing still works, believe it or not.

- [Clay] There are still some green stamps in the drawer, and in the back, there's an old potbelly stove that people sit by in cooler months to keep warm.

- [Tangie] People play checkers on this checkerboard all the time.

- [Clay] The store is dripping with memorabilia.

- There's things in this building that I see, like, that my great granddaddy would've touched.

We have people come in year after year that say, "You know what?

I remember as a kid coming here and getting ice cream," or, "Coming here and getting a little bag."

We still have the little brown bags with the candy, the penny candy.

They say, "You know, my grandmother used to bring me in here," and then they bring their kids and their grandkids.

We try to find things that's kind of old fashioned that you can't get just anywhere.

You can't get it at Walmart, you can't get it at Dollar General, you can only find it here.

- [Clay] Even if it's just a feeling.

- [Tangie] We always say, you know, you may come in a stranger, but you leave out a friend.

- [Clay] And maybe that's a piece of the past that's being saved, too, at both Pace's and Thompson's.

- [Tangie] These are landmarks, and we're lucky to have 'em.

- Historic Thompson's Store and Ward's Grill are located at 24 East Main Street in Saluda, and it's open Tuesday through Sunday.

The M. A.

Pace General Store is located just down the street at 60 East Main Street, and they're open daily.

For more information, including hours of operation, you can find them on Facebook.

Check out these old tools here at the Raleigh Market.

This might actually come in handy for our next story, a motorcycle museum where every bike is still in good working order.

Let's head to the Wheels of Time Museum in Maggie Valley.

[motorcycle revving] - So when people walk into Wheels Through Time, I don't think a lot of people really understand what they're about to experience.

[upbeat music] The museum started in Southern Illinois, actually.

My dad was a Harley-Davidson dealer for 26 years.

During his youth, really became passionate about early American motorcycles and automobiles.

About a 50 year period, he developed the collection that is here at Wheels Through Time.

Found Maggie Valley in 2001, bought the property here that the museum sits on, constructed the building, moved the whole collection.

Within one year of finding this property and breaking ground, the museum was open for visitors.

- One of the things that sets Wheels Through Time apart from other automotive or motorcycle museums is the more tangible experience that you can have here.

You get to see all the bikes up close.

We don't have velvet ropes that everything's kind of hidden behind, so you can get right up on the machines and take a look at them.

There's the sounds that people hear because we are the Museum That Runs.

[motorcycle revving] You hear it there.

So, throughout the day, you're gonna hear that as you walk through the museum, motorcycles and things being fired up, so people can hear and not just see what they're looking at.

And then you have the smell of the museum.

Most people describe it as walking into their granddad's shop.

And you hear it multiple times a day, people just love the smell, because it just brings back so many memories for them.

- At Wheels Through Time, there's over 375 motorcycles.

Of course, everything's American.

It's dominated by Harley-Davidson.

Harley-Davidson's dominated the American motorcycle scene for maybe 70 years now.

But there are 34 brands of motorcycles, one of a kinds, more than you can see anywhere else.

When folks come, they're gonna see the shiny bikes, the off the assembly line, just like, you know, restored machines that look just like they were brand new.

But at the same time, they're gonna see machines that are pulled out of old barns, pieces of history that we put great amount of time and care into keeping just as they are, because they're only original once.

- I can honestly say with my hand on my heart, I've seen 99% of every single vehicle in this museum run.

[upbeat music] - The museum is nicknamed the Museum That Runs, and the big thing here at Wheels Through Time is that everything in the building can crank up and go.

No place in the world can you hear and see most or many of the rarest motorcycles in the world fire up and actually run.

- Well, one of the most important motorcycles in the museum is the world's rarest motorbike, the Traub motorcycle.

No one knew anything about it until 1967, and it's just a phenomenal story.

And of course, it brings in so much history.

- The Traub.

[chuckles] And to listen to Andy tell about it.

- The story behind it is utterly fascinating.

And as they find out more and more about it, as time goes on and it keeps going, it's like a great mystery that they're still trying to figure out.

- One of my favorite parts about working here at the museum is the interaction with people as they come in.

And the one thing about motorcycling is it kind of spans all the ages.

And so as people come in, they're sharing stories.

- If there's one thing that we hope our guests take with them when they leave, is a little bit of inspiration and a little bit of excitement, and maybe even compelling somebody to chase down an old bike themselves.

It's always exciting.

- Why do I love it?

Well, Dale saw me, I was traveling around the world on a bicycle.

He brought me in here, and it just opened my eyes to American history.

The courage of these very early settlers who were using motorbikes, the Depression, they're homemade in America.

It's just an inspiration of how clever and how hardworking American people were just to make this country what it is today.

- Wheels Through Time Motorcycle Museum is at 62 Vintage Lane in Maggie Valley, and it's open Thursday through Monday from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

For more information, give them a call at 828-926-6266, or visit them online at wheelsthroughtime.com.

Rich pastries and happy customers reside in our next story.

Let's visit a pastry shop in Greenville, where producer Seraphim Smith met a French chef who's bringing old world recipes back to life.

[upbeat music] - When my friends told me about a pastry shop in Greenville run by a real French chef, I knew I had to visit.

Chef Marc makes a fabulous sourdough croissant.

And it's not just croissants that these people are queuing up for.

Just look at these beautiful confections and treats.

One of the things that I love about your bakery are these little pastries here.

What are these called?

- Macaron.

- [Seraphim] And what are your most popular flavors?

- [Marc] Well, I think birthday cake, but I do love the pistachio.

- I do too.

- Oh, yeah.

- And what inspired you to make this wonderful restaurant?

- I'm missing eating croissant in the morning, and I was missing a little cafe and bistro, like where I'm from, so that's why I decided to kind of recreate a little piece of France.

The idea is to bring back the traditional French food that has been forgotten.

Got so much history in France that you can always find a new recipe from, like, the past.

So, that's pretty fun.

- [Seraphim] While open for breakfast and lunch Thursday through Sunday, Piece of France also hosts a monthly wine dinner.

Hurry though, tickets sell out quickly.

Let's find out what the customers like to eat.

- The almond croissant is out of this world.

- I like the croissants.

I think the fruit tarts are also solid.

Yeah.

- [Seraphim] What's your favorite thing to eat here?

- Ham and cheese croissant.

- People have been saying they love the quiche.

They've been saying it is the best quiche they've ever had.

We have a quiche Lorraine, pretty traditional, you know, with ham and Gruyere cheese, and we got a Florentine one, which is pretty much spinach and feta cheese.

- Oh, that reminds me of that croissant that I had the other day that was spinach.

Was it spinach?

- Spinach and feta cheese too.

That was, I think, the best croissants I've ever had.

- [Marc] Oh, thank you.

It's a 72 hour process.

- These pillows of croissant dough will get their final rise in the oven from yeast and steam.

The steam will push outward when trapped in the pastry's many layers.

Extra flavor is derived from using a poolish and a sourdough starter called a levain.

Tell me about the levain.

- Oh, the levain is so interesting.

It's alive, it's a microorganism.

- [Seraphim] This sourdough starter is a living batter, and it contains enzymes, bacteria, and yeast, which are present in the air and flour.

The levain, along with croissant scraps, honey, and butter, are added to the poolish.

And this poolish?

It's been fermenting for several hours and is made from commercial yeast, flour, and water.

It's these extra steps of using a pre-ferment poolish and a sourdough starter which create the ultimate croissant, endowed with incredibly flaky layers and a moist, luscious interior.

And all those layers I mentioned?

Well, that's called lamination.

It's the creation of many thin layers of pastry separated by butter.

Croissants have been laminated since the beginning of the 20th century, and it's lamination that gives croissants their signature audible crackle when bit into.

The layers are exponentially created by doing triple folds to the dough.

Every time the dough is folded over itself, its layers triple.

This yields the desired amount of layers in three or four go arounds.

The dough sheeter uniformly rolls the dough to about a third of an inch.

Trimmings will be kept to add to the next batch of dough.

Croissants are actually pretty special because they are both a yeast bread and a laminated pastry at the same time.

This makes them seem as light as a cloud, despite being enriched with a grand amount of butter.

Et voila, the finished croissant is a work of art to be enjoyed by all the senses.

You can't make it to France any time soon, I suggest you come here so you can take home a piece of France.

Bon appetit, y'all.

- Piece of France Pastry Shop Cafe is at 115 Red Banks Road in Greenville, and they're open from 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM, Thursday through Sunday.

To find out more, give them a call at 252-751-0192, or visit them online at pieceoffrancepastryshop.com.

Did you know that collectors and even museums find treasures here at the Raleigh Market?

Well, if you are a passionate collector, you're gonna love this next story.

Meet a charming couple in Durham that may have amassed the largest tuba collection around.

[upbeat music] - I'm Vincent Simonetti.

Most people call me Vince.

- My name is Ethel Simonetti, and right now, we are here at the Vincent and Ethel Historic Tuba Collection.

- It's the only museum in the world that we know of that only features members of the tuba family.

We have almost 350 instruments throughout the five rooms of the building.

- [Ethel] We have many examples of instruments that are one of a kind, the only one left.

We're several collections together here.

- I was a professional musician.

I went to school in New York City at the Manhattan School of Music in the '60s, and I auditioned in 1967 in New York City to play with the North Carolina Symphony as principal tuba.

During the day, when we were doing nothing, because the performances were all in the evening, I would use my time to go to different music stores to look for unusual older instruments.

The first instrument that I ever collected was during that time.

I stayed with the orchestra for eight seasons, from 1967 till 1975.

- Vince would be in the newspaper sometimes because he conducted the local symphony orchestra.

We had both been in different ensembles locally, and we ended up in the same church choir.

- When I saw Ethel, I knew I'd seen someone special.

And when I discovered she liked classical music, that's quite rare these days.

[chuckles] - I guess the rest is history.

[upbeat music] - So here we have one of the largest sousaphones in the collection.

See, the bell is here.

It's been taken off.

That's considered a large valve bore.

It's a removable bell.

So they call this their jumbo model.

Which way would the large end point?

It's backwards.

The majority of the collection we obtained during our time with The Tuba Exchange that we started in 1984, and we operated it until 2011.

The mission for The Tuba Exchange was to provide the best instruments for mainly schools around the country at affordable prices.

During those 27 years, people would bring in instruments to sell or trade.

Some of them were so unusual, I just couldn't sell 'em, so I would either pay for them outright or trade them an instrument, and then I kept them.

I open the door and I say, "Welcome to the Vincent and Ethel Simonetti Historic Tuba Collection."

And then I would take them to all five different rooms.

I ask them questions about instruments and try to get them involved in the tour, which takes almost an hour and a half.

Here we have the oldest instrument in our collection of almost 350 instruments.

It doesn't look like a tuba, it doesn't look like anything.

It's called a serpent.

And I love to say, "Don't get too close, because it is a serpent."

And it's actually made out of wood, not brass, but because it has a mouthpiece that you blow into and vibrate your lips, it's technically considered a brass instrument.

[gentle music] - About 15 years ago, we were recognized by the state of North Carolina as an historic and cultural destination.

They recognized that what we have done has value and interest, so we are very pleased to be a hybrid museum, and also a collection.

- The V & E Simonetti Tuba Collection is at 1825 Chapel Hill Road in Durham, and they're open Tuesday and Thursday from 3:00 to 6:00 PM, and by appointment.

To find out more, give them a call at 919-402-0864, or go online to simonettitubacollection.com.

Vintage ice cream scoop.

I remember we used to have one of these in our house.

From family owned to nationally known, Andia's Ice Cream has unique flavors that every family can enjoy.

Rick Sullivan shares their fantastic story.

- [Rick] In less than a decade, Andia's Ice Cream has grown from a small shop in Cary to a nationally acclaimed premium ice cream business with multiple locations in the Triangle, and an ever-growing cult of Andia's Ice Cream lovers.

What flavor did you get?

- I got birthday cake with whipped cream and gummy bears.

- [Rick] And what's her name, Dad?

- Cora.

- Cora.

How old?

- [Father] She's two and a half.

- [Rick] What flavor did she get today?

- [Father] Cantaloupe sorbet.

- [Rick] And you?

- This is cotton candy.

- [Rick] Have you had it before?

- Oh, yeah.

We're regulars.

- It's honestly a dream come true.

It has been an incredible, incredible journey, and it is more than we could have ever imagined for.

It just fulfills our heart, and we keep saying, like, why did it take us so long to figure this out, you know?

- [Rick] Andia Xouris is Greek, born in Cyprus.

Her husband, George, born in New York, is also of Greek descent.

They both love foods, like ice cream, and family.

Long story short, George started the idea for an ice cream shop, and she has taken it to the next level.

- I am a grand master ice cream maker, only one of 15 in the country, and that is through the North American Ice Cream Association and Cornell University.

- [Rick] Andia's Ice Cream has won so many national awards for its flavors in such a short time that it's been getting as much attention across the country as it does right here at the local shops around the Triangle.

- We've been on "Good Morning America", our milkshakes, we have these monster shakes that we call Andia Shakes, and they have won top three shakes in the country from "Good Morning America".

We've been featured on "USA Today" top four ice cream shops.

We're in the running again this year, so I'm incredibly honored.

And we ship our ice cream, by the way, on goldbelly.com, to all 50 states.

- [Rick] So, if you wanna order some for Uncle Vinny in California or Aunt Betty in Kalamazoo, you can do, but first, you'll wanna taste it to be sure it's all that.

- Wait a minute.

- [Rick] My wife, Lisa, is sampling butter toffee popcorn.

- Mm, that is awesome.

- [Rick] Who would've thought mixing popcorn into ice cream was a good idea?

- Yum.

- Caramelly, popcorny, toffee-y.

- [Rick] Andia Xouris would.

- Very delicious.

- That is one of my personal passions, is to be able to create the new flavors, and so I'm hoping that for as long as I'm running my company, that I will be the R&D chef.

I still love that very, very much, and that's where I'm able to just kind of let loose and let my creative, you know, juices start flowing, and come up with different ideas.

- [Rick] More than 20 flavors of ice cream are available at any given time, with six or seven new flavors rotating in every month.

There are ethnic favorites with popular ingredients from Greece and India and other cultures.

And if the flavors sound amazing, they are, check out the gourmet concoctions being served beyond your typical cups and cones.

- We have our what we call our Classic Shakes, which is just a regular 20 ounce shake, and it has one topping on it, like whipped cream or Hershey syrup.

- [Rick] Just one size, 20 ounces?

- Yes.

[chuckles] - 20 ounces or bust.

- It's a lot.

Exactly.

So then we have our monster size Andia Shakes.

They come in a beautiful glass jar that's taken home as a souvenir, with our logo on it.

- [Rick] And what flavor is this?

- [Server] This is our cake batter for our Batter Up Shake.

- Our Batter Up that has three mini cupcakes on it.

We have another one with cookie dough bites on it.

So, it's a lot of fun, and you could collect all four different shakes while you try them.

- [Rick] Good luck with that.

One shake is a meal replacement.

Fantastic flavors and other creative offerings make Andia's unique, but at the end of the day, Andia herself hopes the greatest reason customers come to her family's Triangle shops is for something more than just the food.

- One of the things that George and I talk about all the time, and we make sure that our team knows, we have over 80 people on staff now, is how grateful we are.

We'll never, ever forget our roots.

And we honestly cannot run a business like this without every single person on my team, so, all of our customers, they're known as guests in our shops, we always say, "Welcome to Andia's," and part of that is for them, we want them to know where they are.

It's a local company.

It'll never be anything more than a local company.

Even if it has a national reach now, it's still going to be always a Cary based, Raleigh based company.

- Andia's Ice Cream has three locations, West Cary, Southeast Cary, and Raleigh.

Their hours vary between locations, so check them out online at andiasicecream.com.

And that's it for tonight's show.

We've had so much fun exploring the Raleigh Market.

It's located here at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds and open every single weekend, free admission.

And if you've missed anything in tonight's show, remember, you can always watch us again online at pbsnc.org, or you can find us on our YouTube channel.

Have a great North Carolina weekend, everyone.

[upbeat music] [upbeat music continues] [upbeat music continues] - [Narrator] Funding for "North Carolina Weekend" is provided in part by Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of barrier island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

[gentle music]